I'm very new here but not to Corvettes. I've owned 7 over the last 40+ years, and have done most work myself, including engine building. My current is a '67 BB 435hp coupe. I've added several non stock, bolt on options just to make it more personalized and street friendly.

I have a '65 about 75% restored (it runs, and that was the important thing at the time). It's a 300 hp flavor convertible with a 3.08 rear, sidepipes, knock offs, Nassau Blue, and Black leather. The emblems were removed, the chrome on the tail lights were removed, and a third light was added and I like it better that way.

It was my fathers. He bought it brand new in 65 after some idiot decided to run into his '64. He did a bunch of Gymkhana along with shows at the Cavalier with it along with it being the reason I'm alive - he was on a date with a friend of my mother's (and my mom was on a date with a friend of my father's) who only wanted to date him because he had a Corvette. Mom ran into Dad a few weeks or so later (it obviously didn't work out with the woman dad was on a date with - in fact she was a bridesmaid in their wedding) and they hit it off...

The car has over 250k miles on it and is in remarkable shape for the age it is. It sat from roughly 83 until 05 when he and I finished the restoration as far as we could given the time. My father had Lou Gherig's disease and I wanted to make sure that the car was running while he was still able to drive it. He didn't get to drive it because the muscle decay in his arms was too much for him to drive, but he did get to drive it.

Since he died in '06, I haven't had much time or money to really consider doing anything on it (that, and I think Mom wasn't ready to have it out of the garage)- so it's sat in my mother's garage in Virginia Beach. This fall, I'm hoping to get down there with a friend who has a truck to bring it up to Michigan and get the resto finished. I still need to rewire it and redo the suspension along with a few other smaller things.

If I can help it, this car will never leave my family.

And an older picture when Dad towed a '57 from NW PA to Norfolk with his '65.

Here is my 62. It belonged to my Dad. He bought it in 2007 and passed away in 2010. He put less than 200 miles on this car while he owned it.

I just purchased a 65 vette convertible with a small block 327. This auto sat in a showroom for a few months with half a tank of gas. Took it out for a test drive and am getting constant backfire and hesitation through the carb as well as backfire out the pipes. Trying to burn out the rest of the fuel in the tank to replenish with fresh fuel. These engines were designed for leaded fuel and my question is...what octane is everyone running in their engines? So far the consensus has been 93 octane. True?